brown butter brown sugar shortbread – smitten kitchen

Brown your butter: In a medium saucepan or frying pan, soften butter over medium-high warmth. It’s going to soften, then foam, then flip transparent golden and a few toasted speckles will seem. Once they do, take away the pan from the burner; the residual warmth shall be enough to toast the remainder of the butter to a deep golden brown. Pour butter and all of the toasty flecks right into a medium bowl then switch to the freezer.

Relax the browned butter: We wish to freeze the butter till it’s forged all the way through however believe me, this speeds it up: Freeze the butter within the bowl for half-hour then give it a complete stir, scraping down the perimeters, blending the nonetheless melted portions within the heart over the solidified chunks. Go back to the freezer for some other half-hour — it will have to now be utterly forged all the way through. Lower it into chunks, proper within the bowl. No want to lead them to even.

Warmth your oven: To 300°F. Line an 8-inch sq. cake pan with parchment paper that extends up two facets. There’s no want to grease it.

Make the shortbread dough one among two techniques:

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment: Beat browned butter chunks, brown sugar, and salt in combination, scraping regularly, till lightly blended. Upload vanilla, water, and flour, and blend simply till mixed, scraping down the bowl once more. This is identical order as for a hand mixer, however with a hand mixer, you’ll want the butter warmed to semi-soft first.

In a meals processor: Mix brown sugar, salt, and flour within the paintings bowl, pulsing a couple of occasions. Upload chilly browned butter chunks, vanilla, and water and pulse a number of occasions to cut the butter down into even smaller items. Then, run the gadget till it’s totally integrated and is derived in combination in a clean mass, 1 to two mins extra, scraping down as wanted for even blending.

Each strategies: Switch shortbread dough to ready baking pan and your palms to press it into an excellent, flat layer, then use an offset spatula to clean the highest.

Bake the shortbread: For half-hour — it is going to now not be totally baked but — and take away from the oven simply lengthy sufficient to form the shortbread.

To create the diamond form proven, use the again of a paring knife (sure, the uninteresting aspect) or a bench scraper to make mild line indentations slightly 1/4-inch into the shortbread, about 1 inch aside. Then, at a few 45-degree perspective from the primary strains, make final indentations 1.5 inches aside. [Note: I absolutely never measure and it’s more intuitive than it sounds when you read the above.] Use an excessively skinny, sharp paring knife (that is my go-to) to chop alongside those strains to the ground of the pan. Use the again of a picket skewer (the uninteresting finish) to dock the shortbread anywhere it fits you (it’s for aesthetics) about 1/3 of the way in which into the cookie.

End baking: Go back the shortbread to the oven for some other 15 to twenty mins, or till extra deeply golden on the edges. Let cool within the pan, or, if you happen to’re impatient, allow them to cool for 10 mins, after which take away them, the usage of some of the prolonged facets of the parchment paper lining the pan to make it more uncomplicated. Let shortbread cool totally, then separate the shortbread the place they had been reduce. If wanted, use your paring knife once more to make blank separations.

Squiggle with icing (not obligatory): Area shortbread lightly out on a rack and position over a tray to catch drips. Position powdered sugar in a small bowl and upload 1 tablespoon lemon juice, blending to mix. We’re in search of a thick however drizzle-able consistency. Upload all or a part of final 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice if wanted to succeed in it. Switch icing to a sandwich bag and snip a tiny little bit of the nook off and drizzle the icing over the shortbread. Let set for one hour at room temperature.

Do forward: Shortbread assists in keeping for 1 week, if now not longer, at room temperature. It freezes neatly too, simply wrap it tight, and don’t squiggle with icing till defrosted.